The Point Radio: The Return Of Roseanne

NBC has brought back LAST COMIC STANDING, but with a number of big changes that include a whole new panel of judges that has Roseanne Barr coming back to series TV. We talked with Roseanne on what lured her back and just what she thinks it will take to win this year’s competition. Plus Jeff Foxworthy talks about breaking into comedy and IDW’s V-WARS gets more good news.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. It's Mike Raub. Comedy Week continues as we look at the return of Last Comic Standing to NBC. And new judge Roseanne Barr tells us why she's back on television. Plus more with Jeff Foxworthy and more good news about the award. Let's get to The Point.

This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. Last Comic Standing is coming back to NBC for the summer. But with a number of changes starting right at the top with it being produced in part by comedian Wanda Sykes among others and featuring a new host JB Smooth and new judges too that include Kenan Ivory Wayans and Roseanne Barr. I talked to Roseanne and asked her why she chose to come

back to television for this show. I just thought it would be really fun and when I heard that Kenan Ivory Wayans was one of the judges you know I really loved him and you know I like Wanda a lot too and you know so I thought it would be fun to work with some really you know great comics and get right in the middle of stuff that has to do with stand-up comedy. Like I said there's lots of changes including an all-new format executive producer Paige Horowitz.

I mean the biggest change that viewers will notice right out of the gate is we didn't do open call auditions this year. In previous seasons they went around and did open calls in various cities and people off the street would come in and audition. This season Wanda Sykes and I did the casting in advance of the show. We picked a hundred top comics from around the country and then we had them come to LA and they performed at a big theater venue for what we call our

invitational round and they performed for the judges and then it was up to Roseanne, Kenan, and Russell Peters to decide who would advance in the competition. So that is the biggest change so we have a new invitational round of the competition. Then the second thing is that we brought back doing challenges which had been done in previous seasons. However we did the challenges this season in a way that they were really focused on comedy and in stretching the comedians in terms of their

skill sets having them try their hand at sketch comedy, do a little improv. They did a roast. They did things that they would probably do in their careers as they progress. So instead of putting comedians into wacky situations we really wanted to put them into situations that they might face as comics going forward and we think that they're really terrific. So that also was a change this season and beyond that the other big changes that the judges are making all of the

decisions this year in terms of who keeps moving forward in the competition. In the past America would vote through a phone vote or a text vote. This season the judges have made all the decisions and we think they've done a great job. Competition shows like this have shown us over the years that the judges all seem to fall into a mold. The sympathetic judge, the cruel judge, the nurturing judge. So I ask Roseanne what kind she'd be. Intelligence. You know I'm just me. I didn't

like try to copy somebody else. I'm just me and I'm a big fan of comics and comedy as you may know and writing and you know it's I just give my honest opinion as I have done for you know all these many years when it comes to writing and comedy. So you know I'm not I don't think I fit into your paradigm now. If something like last comic standing existed at the start of her career how would Roseanne have done? I think I would have really worked really hard and or else I wouldn't

have you know that's what I like about these comics because they're prepared and had I you know if I I wouldn't you know become part of any contest unless I was really prepared and thought I could win and that's what I think we have here. We have you know what we're seeing who's prepared and who isn't prepared. Of course I have to say I would have won because I mean you have to have that kind of self-confidence being a stand-up comic. You have to really believe in what you do and that

you're the you're the best at doing what you do and so we've seen a lot of people on the show you know come in like that but it's not an altar and you know but the ones who want it the most are the ones who make it. See the all new last comic standing Thursdays on NBC and catch a few clips right now at nbc.com. Hang on for the latest in pop culture along with that shot of the Batmobile and Ben Affleck in the Batman costume. Now the Batman Superman movie has

something else we can share and that is a title. It'll be Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice. Principal photography for the film was already begun in Michigan and they got plenty of time to do that. It's said to be in theaters in 2016. After their big success on free comic book day and of course sellouts of the first two issues it's only natural that something else big would happen to the series from IDW called V-Wars and now it looks like it's going to be picked up as a possible

series project for television part of the development deal announced a few months ago by IDW and Entertainment One Television. It's the first project in the co-production deal between those two companies that we told you about a few weeks back. After a legal battle that's gone on for almost two years Dynamite Entertainment and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Corporation have reached a settlement that'll allow Dynamite to officially publish the ERB characters. That'll

include more material based on John Carter Warlord of Mars and hopefully Tarzan Lord of the Jungle as well. The dispute began when Dynamite began publishing material based on some of the ERB characters but very carefully treading around certain trademarks. For example they did a Tarzan book called Lord of the Jungle that never really referred to Tarzan in the title. Now they have the right zone to do it all and they'll begin by doing a new John Carter series as well as plants

to reprint Carter material from as far back as the 1940s over the next year or so. The May sweeps are officially over and the winner this year is a little bit of a surprise. ABC won it for the very first time in 14 years. Grabbing the number one spot on the coveted 18 to 49 year old demo. However for the entire TV season of 2014 that honor goes to NBC for being number one. They were up some 13 percent over last year and it's the first time they've been number one

in almost a decade. Brought there of course by shows like The Voice, The Blacklist and their coverage of the Olympics. For a number of years comedian Jeff Foxworthy is entertained us of course on the Blue Collar comedy tour as well as a host of shows like American Bible Challenge and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. I said I would Jeff and I asked him how the whole comedy thing in his life got started. I didn't know growing up you could do this for a living.

As a kid I would save my allowance and I would buy comedy records Cosby and Flip Wilson and you know Bob Newhart and I would memorize him and I was always doing them at school and always getting in trouble. In fact the best note I ever got backstage I played the Fox theater in Atlanta and somebody brought a note and it was from my high school principal saying I can't believe I'm shelling out money to hear the same kind of junk I used to try to put a stop to. But I had a job I

had a job at IBM and I was the guy that was always doing impersonations of the boss in the break room and getting caught and getting in trouble and a bunch of friends at work entered me in a comedy competition. I had never been in a comedy club and I went in and I won the contest the first night I did it and two minutes into it I mean I was I had no idea what I was doing but I was like this is what I want to do and I quit my job at IBM. My parents thought I'd lost my mind

you know my mother was like are you on dope what is wrong with you and five years later I was on Johnny Carson and the same mom is going you know you wasted all those years at IBM. So in the early years you know I would sit there and think all right what am I going to talk about what am I going to talk about and and I was kind of stubborn I wouldn't I would refuse to lose my accent I had guys in New York going you know Fox whether you got to take some voice lessons

and lose that stupid accent you got and and I thought well at least a quarter of the country talks like this and I always wore jeans and boots and drove a truck and and so I was everywhere I was going I was getting out of nothing but an old redneck from Georgia. Well as I traveled the country I kind of realized hey this isn't just a southern thing there's rednecks everywhere and one week I was playing a comedy club in Detroit right outside Detroit and they were kidding me

about being a redneck well this club was attached to a bowling alley that had valet parking and I said if you don't think you have rednecks in Michigan look out the window people are valet parking at the bowling alley and I and I went back to my room that night and and I wrote 10 ways to tell how you might be a redneck never thinking it was going to be a hook or a book and you know I was just trying to find a a new routine and went and tried it the next night at the club

and not only were people laughing they were pointed at each other and so you know that kind of turned into a franchise in itself I started doing the page of day calendars in 1990 and we're still doing them and and I wrote I don't know how many books about it and you know the rest of my humor I just kind of assumed hey if I think it or my wife says is or my family does it then surely we're not the only ones and so I never sit around going what's funny what's funny what's

funny I just kind of talk about my life and and I've been so lucky that that people have identified with it and I've got to do with this law this season Jeff is again hosting the American Bible Challenge a highly rated show on the game show network I asked Jeff what we could expect from some of the episodes coming up you know what the moment that it really hooked me that we we had a group of three ladies from Plano Texas right outside of Dallas and they had a food pantry I

mean they were literally feeding people out of their back door because they lived in this kind of troubled community and there were a lot of kids that weren't getting enough to eat every day and so they were feeding people out of their back door well they win their week and they win twenty thousand dollars for the week and we go to commercial break and I look over and this this woman's just got tears rolling down her face and I you know I went over and I put my arm around her

and I said are you okay and she said do you know what this means she said this is 80,000 meals for people that don't get enough to eat and that kind of stopped me and I thought you know what every other game show twenty thousand dollars is a new motorcycle or it's a new hot tub this is 80,000 meals for people that really need it and I was like okay that's cool we're doing something nobody else is doing see Jeff on the American Bible Challenge new episodes every week on the

game show network catch that at gsntv.com for more info or you can catch on core episodes on uptv check your local cable provider. That does it for the podcast we're taking the holiday off but we'll be back about the middle of next week or so to get you up on everything that's going on in the meantime stay in touch with pop culture over the holiday or any day and get the point radio.com take us along on your mobile device to either Apple or Android with a free app called iNet Radio.

When we come back we'll be in all the usual places ComicMix.com and michaeldavisworld.com and in the iTunes podcast directory as well. Keep in touch with us on social media on both Facebook and Twitter under the point radio and have a great memorial day weekend see you in a few days. Get the point radio.com